Long Beach Students Get to be Crime Scene Investigators

Ever wonder what it’s like to be a crime scene investigator? Friday, some Long Beach students found out. Maddy Morgan, a 7th grader, is one of 100 students who learned about crime scene investigation at Harper McCaughan Elementary School Friday.

C.S.I. Camp instructors taught students everything from how to uncover fingerprints to face recognition, providing students real world applications for the science, technology, engineering, and math (S.T.E.M.) program they’re learning in school. Danielle Caldwell, C.S.I. Camp for a Day Manager, says, “Seeing the kids light up when they’re, for instance, doing ratios and going, ‘Oh, I didn’t know ratios could be applied to anything,’ where they’re looking at the ratios in a person’s face and realizing how that can actually be an identifier for somebody.”

The C.S.I. Camp for a Day is run by the Southern Methodist University in Texas and visits military-connected communities around the country. The Seabee base on the Gulf Coast arranged for Friday’s lesson and chose a Long Beach school because of the amount of military-connected families in the area. Kevin Byrd, School Liaison Officer for the Seabee Base, says, “It incorporates things that we do in everyday life, especially in military bases, because they use S.T.E.M. initiatives every single day.”

Not only are students learning how to apply science and math, they are also learning about possible career options as well. Some of the students News 25 spoke with say that this might be something they wish to explore in the future. Morgan closes, “I actually would like to do that. Really, it’s actually really interesting. It’d be something fun to do.”

Even if students aren’t thinking about this like Morgan is, as a future career, C.S.I. Camp for a Day was still a way for them to uncover real world applications for science and math.